Officials: 'Clown Penis' Is Not a Realistic Callsign for Pilots

Despite what you may have seen on television, it is extremely unlikely that a fighter pilot would have the callsign “Clown Penis.” A recent Saturday Night Live Skit with actor Will Ferrell featured an F-16 pilot with the above-mentioned callsign. The pilot explained that he picked it because, “When an enemy sees me on his tail, I want him to feel the same way that you’d feel if a clown showed you his penis: Confused, unsettled, and most of all very, very scared.” To those not familiar with aviation, this may seem to be a plausible scenario, especially since two Navy aviators got into trouble last year for drawing a penis in the sky. But experts will tell you that pilots typically don’t pick their own callsigns. In fact, Air Force squadrons vote on a pilot’s callsign and the most popular ones get assigned to the pilots, said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Daren Sorenson, a form...